Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Flourless Chocolate Lava Cake

Alright, haven't even really started and already taking things in a different direction:  awesome dessert recipes!  (Still fits with the theme, though)


I noticed this recipe many moons ago while flipping through a local commuter paper, but only gave it a try today.  Glad I did - it was great, and easy to make too.

There's no point in me copying & pasting their recipe when I can lead you to the source:
http://metronews.ca/food/940183/fall-in-love-with-a-gluten-free-chocolate-lava-cake/
(** 2014-10-21: it just occurred to me that one day the source site could be down and a reader would cry in dismay when they saw the tasty pictures and had no recipe to work with.  Unfortunately, even if I wanted to stick it here I can't without the explicit permission from the publisher, so ... click the link and cross your fingers **)

... but I do have some tips for you, after my first experience baking something like this.  Keep in mind I'm a complete amateur, so take these with a grain of salt:

  • The first step is to melt the chocolate & butter. An experienced cook would tell you to use a  "double-boiler" or Bain-marie .. , what I did was lay down some chopsticks in a large pot, sit my mixing bowl on them, then fill the pot with enough water to reach the level of the chocolate & butter in the bowl.  At the start, you can cover the pot to help the water heat up faster, but uncover it before all the water starts condensing and dripping onto your ingredients.
    • They say not to let the water boil.  I completely forgot about that the second time around, and it still turned out fine
  • I have no idea where to get vanilla seed pods, so used artificial vanilla extract instead.  No complaints from the family.
  • Watch that timer like a hawk.  I gave my baking sheet a jiggle at the 13 minute mark and they were not done yet, but then I didn't come back till over 16 minutes past and they were too firm by then (IMO)
  • While the recipe says you can prep it beforehand, this does not appear to be the kind of dessert that you would want to have leftovers for.  Within 15 minutes of eating our one dessert, the remaining cakes developed serious cracks on the tops, exposing the liquidy centres.  I've put lids on the remaining ramekins, hoping they'll still be moist for tomorrow.
  • As you can see from the picture, I only baked 6 cakes - not enough ramekins!  I cut the recipe in half and kept the same timing -- seems to work well
Feedback is welcome, especially if you can give me tips to improve my baking   :)

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

... but not yet

Have you ever come across something and thought to yourself, "Amazing! I've got to tell someone about this!"  And then you break out into song, as this fish does?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXePrBbgXxg

Sometimes I feel that way.  And from now on, when I do, I'll write it here (but we'll see how long that lasts).  Not everything will be amazing... some will just be "neat" or "pretty cool".

I've wanted to have a spot to announce these awesome findings for a while now, so the first few posts will be the backlog of all those things that seemed amazing at the time.  I'm generally keen on techie stuff, so that's probably going to be the majority of posts right there.  As for the rest, we'll see

So then, until my first real post of interest, here's a link to the full transcript of that quote:
http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/Jellyfish_Hunter_(transcript)

Edit:  I just realized I linked to an audio-only youtube video - oops!  Well, trust me, it's great.  And btw, the fact that I am referencing Spongebob in my very first post is not an indication of what to expect here.  Not really.